ENHANCING PATIENT AND DOCTOR EXPERIENCE IN AN OUTPATIENT OSTEOPATHIC MANIPULATIVE MEDICINE (OMM) CLINIC VIA UTILIZATION OF ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORD (EMR) SCRIBES

Survey-based study to identify whether employing a scribe in an osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) office increases physician and/or patient satisfaction. Purpose (a): Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) is both patient-centered and hands-on. Therefore, successfully integrating electronic medical records (EMR) into the OMM physician’s practice presents a unique challenge. The purpose of our study was to determine whether the presence of scribes (people trained to take notes for the doctor while they interview, examine, and treat the patient) within an OMM clinic would increase both physician and patient satisfaction by allowing physicians to devote increased attention to the patient. Similar research had been conducted in emergency departments and allopathic outpatient offices, but we believed the benefit in an osteopathic manipulative environment would be higher because EMR physically prevented the osteopath from performing manipulative techniques. Methods (b): The study was conducted by a scribe who was employed within the Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) outpatient office at the University of North Texas-Health Science Center (UNTHSC) during the time period of June 10 through July 11, 2013. The study was structured to gather data via two sets of surveys. One survey was given to all practice physicians before the scribe on-boarding date and again after termination of scribe employment. This survey’s purpose was to judge scribe impact on physician satisfaction. The second survey was given to each patient who visited the practice between June 10 and July 11. It’s purpose was to determine scribe impact on patient satisfaction. Results (c): The findings of the study were inconclusive. It was not possible to determine whether scribe presence influenced either physician or patient satisfaction. This outcome was the result of factors that were not taken into account at project commencement. For example, third year medical students sometimes took notes for physicians in the Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) office. This confused patients: many believed the student was a scribe which skewed study results. Conclusions (d): Despite these difficulties, we continue to believe scribes would be beneficial for the Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) outpatient office environment. Therefore, we anticipate further studies will be undertaken which better elucidate this theory.